Above is a chart from investing.com showing the CRTC gold speculative net positions from January 26 to current. I included this to show the trend in the short positions held, of note is the trend indicates that they have been reducing their short position (almost 140K).

JPMorgan has been the largest buyer of COMEX gold futures contracts over the past month and a half, they have bought an estimated 50,000 short contracts and they have reduced their net short position to about 40,000 contracts. 50,000 contracts represents 5 million ounces of gold.

Under normal circumstances, the sellers would mostly consist of managed money traders and speculators but the short contracts were bought from other commercial traders. This is significant as it may indicate that JPMorgan is expecting a surge in the price of gold.

A valid point is in regards to the 40,000 contracts they still hold. They do have a stock pile of about 20 million ounces that they can use to cover these contracts and if their assumption of a price rise proves correct, they will still make a net profit. The other would likely arise if they did move to eliminate their total short position, it would signal the market that JPMorgan expects the rise in the gold price causing the other traders to follow their lead.

The reason why JPMorgan is staging this double cross on the other commercials is not appear. Strategically they maybe planning a takeover of a or some competitors.